Easy Vegetable Biryani for One (or Two)

Drinking smoothies for breakfast is helping me increase my daytime fruit intake, but I still need to work on adding some more veggies during the day. My lunches usually consist of a bit of last night’s leftovers or again, Chelsea’s leavings (ugh, that sounds awful). The big draw of those two things is that they are both very quick, so whatever I replace them with needs to also be quick or I’ll just go back to KD.

We almost always have cooked Basmati rice in the fridge. It is a mainstay of Chelsea’s diet, it’s a safe bet to call it her favourite food when topped with a healthy shake of parmesan cheese. While I don’t necessarily agree with her choice of topping, I enjoy Basmati as well… but it’s not a veggie. Leftover rice, some fresh and frozen vegetables, along with some spices and about 5 minutes of time however, make a delicious and nutritious lunch.

In a skillet, sauté onion until softened. Add in curry paste and cook for half a minute or so. Add the water,veggies and raisins and stir fry for about one minute. Add in the cooked rice and toss until combined and rice is hot. Stir in cilantro and serve topped with chopped cashews.

This could very easily be a quick 10 minute dinner for 2 or 3 by adding a chopped chicken breast or some rinsed canned chickpeas after starting to cook the onions… just make sure chicken is fully cooked before continuing on to the rest of the recipe. I love how the Patak’s Curry Pastes and Cooking Sauces can all be easily adapted to make super fast and delicious vegetarian dishes. Butter Roasted Cauliflower anyone? It’s simple, just roast chopped cauliflower with a bit of olive oil and then toss in some warmed Patak’s Butter Chicken cooking sauce… yum!

Disclosure: I am part of the Patak’s Canada Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.